Well, there it is:
http://cvk2012.org/news/reshenie_cvk_13/?Year=2012 Now I am an official candidate in the Coordinating Council elections. And I have already resorted to dirty campaign tactics: NLP specialists made me a special photo in which I am making a special intricate finger gesture that looks merely odd to the uninitiated, but in fact implants a subconscious signal: vote for me.
Of course, we are still a long way from the highest standards of such techniques, but we are working on it.
I am very much counting on your support just in case the finger trick does not work.
Voter registration will begin on September 10 and continue until voting day, October 20.
I have said a lot about how important this vote is for those being elected: legitimacy, rotation of leaders, real competition.
But most importantly, registration and voting matter to all of us—the voters.
It seems to me there are two key things here:
- self-identification.
To say to yourself: yes, I want political reform; yes, I demand free elections; yes, I do not agree that the fate of my country should be decided by a handful of, quite literally, bandits, thieves, and crooks; yes, I do not want people to be left to rot in prison for peaceful protests; yes, I will never accept that the nation’s wealth and resource rents are appropriated by a few dozen families; it disgusts me that my country ranks on the corruption index between Nigeria and Uganda; I do not want the return of a Kremlin gerontocracy in the Brezhnev mold (Leonid Brezhnev, late-Soviet leader associated with stagnation and rule by the elderly).
And yes, these thoughts and demands of mine unite me with hundreds of thousands and millions of other people.
- an active and responsible stance.
The future belongs to me. I will shape the government the way I want it to be. I will choose whatever kind of opposition to that government I want to see. Everything depends on us and on our persistence. On believing in our own strength.
Putin will not overthrow himself.
For that—along with a million other reasons—we need registration and elections.
Candidate nominations will continue until September 15, and we will still see many good people on these lists.
And yes, I want to draw your attention to the fact that there is now an active process of creating regional electoral committees. It is a very useful undertaking and an excellent chance for regional activists to get involved in real political organizing, since everyone is always complaining that political life exists only in Moscow. Build political life right where you are.
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